Part 3 (1/2)

A species of Gristes was abundant in the water-holes, but it was of small size: the eels have disappeared

Nov 25--We travelled about eighta spur, from which the waters flowed, both to the south-west and to the eastward, but both collecting in Robinson's Creek Every tiullies, with almost perpendicular walls, whereas the easterly waters fore was openly tiuullies; and with a little dioecious tree belonging to the Euphorbiaceae, which I first st us under the name of the ”Severn Tree:” it had a yellow or red three-capsular fruit, with a thin fleshy pericarp, of an exceedingly bitter taste; the capsules were one-seeded The gullies were full of bush-trees, ast which the Bottle-tree, and the Corypha-palm were frequent Po to Mr Gilbert, rock wallabies were very numerous On a RECONNOISSANCE I traversed the continuation of the range, which I found to be of a flat, sandy, and rotten character, having, with the exception of the Blackbutt, all the trees and other characteristics of the sandstone country of Moreton Bay: Xylomelum, Xanthorrhaea, Zamia, Leptospermum, a new species of forest oak, which deserves the name of Casuarina VILLOSA, for its bark looks quite villous; Persoonia falcata, R Br, a slaucous falcate leaves, and racemose inflorescence; a dwarf Persoonia, with linear leaves, the stringy-bark, and a species of Melaleuca along the creek In my excursion I crossed the ullies of its right bank as steep and tremendous as those of the left Water was very scarce The whole country is corained sandstone

As the water-holes on the range are very few and distant froeons in great nuht of them, and Mr Roper, John Murphy, and Charley, added to the nueon supper and breakfast, each having his bird--a rare occurrence in our expedition A few drops of rain fell in thefor our bullocks, four e down the slope towards the ca their horses ready, gave chase, and, after a dangerous gallop, over extreround, succeeded, with the assistance of our kangaroo dog, Spring, in securing one of them When Charley returned to the camp with the bullocks, he told us that he had found these est the bullocks, and that he had struck one of them with his tomahawk On our road to the water, which I had found on her range, rising at the right of Robinson's Creek, we started a herd of eight kangaroos, when our horse one of theht, which passed, however, to the other side of the range After a gust of wind of short duration, we had soht indeed, as not to interrupt ouron our journey, we ascended the range, and travelled between four and five miles on its level summit, which was covered with open forest, interspersed with thickets of Acacias and Casuarinas Froe we enjoyed a very fine and extensive view Ranges of mountains with conspicuous peaks, cupolas, and precipitous walls of rock, were observed extending at various distances froe was particularly striking and ie,” and to a bell-shaped ave the name of ”Mount Nicholson,” in honour of Dr Charles Nicholson, who first introduced into the Legislative Council of New South Wales, the subject of an overland expedition to Port Essington; and to a sharp peak N 66 degrees W, the nament of the kind assistance received froreat difficulty into a broad valley, bounded on either side by fine slopes and ridges, openly tirassed flats along the watercourse, the flooded-gurew to a considerable size

Thewas cloudy, with occasional drops of rain; but it cleared up towards noon, and, near sunset, a wall of dark clouds rose in the west, over the ranges Thunder-storenerally come esterly cloudy weather, with north-westerly, and northerly winds We busied ourselves in extracting the oil from the skin of the e it on sticks before a gentle fire, the oil dripping froht a the locks of our fire-arood anti-rheumatic, and I occasionally used it for that purpose

Mr Gilbert skinned the tail of the kangaroo tofat; but it broke and ripped so easily when dry, as to render it unfit for that purpose We used the skins of the kangaroos to cover our flour-bags, which were in a rees 19 minutes 19 seconds

Nov 28--Charley and Brown informed us that they had followed the watercourse, and had come to a broad river with precipitous banks, which would not allow any passage for our horses and cattle; they also stated that the watercourse on which ere encaully, and that it would be impossible to cross it lower down From this infor inin south-west direction was before us; I, therefore, decided upon heading it It was, however, very difficult to find a leading spur, and we frequently caullies, surrounded by a dense thicket of cypresspine, and a great variety of shrubs peculiar to sandstone rock After travelling about nine rees E direction, we ca found, in one of its watercourses, sorass and a fine water-hole, ere enabled to encamp Mr Roper and Charley, who had kept a little more to the left, reported that they had been on one of the heads of the Boyd, and had seen a fine open country to the ard, and south-west The ”Boyd” was so nament of the liberal support I had received froullies, a new species of Dodonaea, with pinnate pubescent leaves, was frequent Towards evening we had a thunderstor the country in the neighbourhood of the camp, I ascended three es, striking from north to south, of which the three easterly ones send their waters to the eastward; whereas the testerly ones send theirs to the Boyd, the valley of which has a south-westerly direction

To the north of the Boyd, there is a steep es are composed of sandstone, with their horizontal strata, sorain Iullies We also sao kangaroos

In the water-hole near our camp, there were numerous small brown leeches, which were very keen in the water, but dropped off as soon as we lifted our feet out of it The hornets also were very troubleso trees betokened the presence of natives; who keep, however, carefully out of sight This country, with its dry scrubby ranges and its deep rocky gullies, see, probably, to the lower course of Robinson's Creek and of the Boyd The descent to the easterly waters is er in the deep rocky basins or puddled holes of its creeks, and the vegetation is richer and greener Instead of the cypress-pine scrub, the Corypha-palrew here, and invited us to cool shaded waters; the Corypha-pale

We had a thunder-store to the eastward The two last days were cloudless and very hot; but, on the ranges, a cool breeze was stirring from the northward

Nov 30--I wished to ht h I kept ht necessary, ere everywhere intercepted by deep rocky gullies Losingthem, I ventured to descend one of the reat satisfaction, my bullocks did it admirably well The valley into which I entered was very different froentle slopes, covered with open forest of silver-leaved Ironbark, and radual descent to the bottom of the valley, which was broad, flat, thinly tiurass, and, in the bed of the creek which passed through it, well provided with reedy water-holes Before I ventured to proceed with my whole party, I determined to examine the country in advance, and therefore followed up one of the branches of the , the silver-leaved Ironbark forest soon ceased, and the valley became narrow and bounded by perpendicular walls of sandstone, co out of sandy slopes covered with Dogwood (Jacksonia) and spotted-gum The rock is in a state of rapid decomposition, with deep holes and caves inhabited by rock-wallabies; and with abundance of nests of wasps, and wasp-like Hymenoptera, attached to their walls, or fixed in the interstices of the loose rock Through a few gullies I succeeded in ascending a kind of table-land, covered with a low scrub, in which the vegetation about Sydney appeared in several of its most common forms I then descended into other valleys to the eastward, but all turned to the east and south-east; and, after a long and patient investigation, I found no opening through which we could pass with our bullocks Although I returned little satisfied withinforular country

CHAPTER III

RUINED CASTLE CREEK--ZAMIA CREEK--BIGGE'S MOUNTAIN--ALLOWANCE OF FLOUR REDUCED--NATIVES SPEAR A HORSE--CHRISTMAS RANGES--BROWN'S LAGOONS--THUNDER-STORMS--ALBINIA DOWNS--COMET CREEK--NATIVE CAMP

Dec 1--I rode to the eastward from our camp, to ascertain how far ere from the water-hole to which I had intended to conduct ullies, and passed the low scrub and cypress-pine thicket which surrounds them, I came into the open forest, and soon found our tracks, and the little creek for which I had steered the day before This creek, however, soon beca to the east and south-east Disheartened and fatigued, I returned to the ca down the course of the Boyd to the south-west, until I should come into a more open country On ullies, south of the creek I had left, and east of the creek on which our camp was, and which I had called ”The Creek of the Ruined Castles,” because high sandstone rocks, fissured and broken like pillars and walls and the high gates of the ruined castles of Germany, rise from the broad sandy summits of many hills on both sides of the valley

When I returned to the camp, Mr Gilbert told me, that Mr Roper and John Murphy had been on a mountain towards the head of the main creek, north-west from our camp, and that they had seen an open country before them I therefore started, on the 2d December, with Mr Gilbert to examine it Our admiration of the valley increased at every step The whole systelens which join ”Ruined Castle Creek,” would form a most excellent cattle station With the exception of the narrow gorge through which the main creek passes to join the Creek of Palms [Mr Arrowsmith is of opinion that such a junction is i to the creek, called Palm Tree Creek, which he fell in with about 60 ht be shut by a fence not thirty yards long; and of the passable ranges to the north-west, which lead into a new country, and which form the pass seen by Roper and Murphy, it is everywhere surrounded by irass, plenty of water in the lower part of the creek, and useful timber, unite to recommend this locality for such a purpose The creeks to the east and south-east are also equally adapted for cattle stations After passing a stony ridge covered with spotted-gum, from which the remarkable features of the country around us--the flat-topped mountain wall, the isolated pillars, the i over the summits of the mountains--were visible, we descended a slope of silver-leaved Ironbark, and ca in a north-westerly direction, and passing over an openly timbered country, for about two e which seees We followed a watercourse to the northward, which, at seventhe watercourse is notto Mr Arrowsmith, so that seven miles must be afroes to the eastward

Here water was very scarce; the banks of the creek were covered with Bricklow scrub; and a bush-fire, which had recently swept down the valley, had left very little food for our cattle: the blady-grass, however, had begun to show its young shoots, and the vegetation, on soreen Sterculia (heterophylla?) and the Bottle-tree, were growing in the scrub; and eons (Leucosarcia picata, GOULD) were started fro-places under the old trees in the sandy bed of the creek We caught a young curlew; and Mr Gilbert shot two Wonga-Wongas, and three partridge-pigeons (Geophaps scripta) The latter abound in the silver-leaved Ironbark forest, where the grass has been recently burned

After having contended with scrubs, with swarapple with our old enemy, the silver-leaved Bricklow, and a prickly Acacia with pinnate leaves,Downs

The etation; however, was an aborescent Zah, and about nine inches in diaated cones, not yet ripe In consequence of the prevalence of this plant, I called the creek ”Zamia Creek” In the fat-hen flats, over which we travelled in following the watercourse to Zamia creek, I was surprised to find Erythrina, which I had been accustomed to meet with only on the creeks, and at the outskirts of mountain brushes, near the sea-coast The white cedar (Melia Azedarach) grows also along Zamia Creek, with casuarina, and a species of Leptospermum On my return to the ca, and had brought in three; they were about two feet long; body reddish grey, neck rey, a white stripe on each shoulder, black muzzle, and black at the back of the ear; the tail with rather long hair The flying squirrel (Petaurus sciureus) which was not different from that of the Hunter; and a Centropus phasianellus, (the swamp pheasant of Moreton Bay), were shot

Dec 3--We stopped at Ruined Castle Creek, in order to obtainthe rocks, and which appeared to be a new species: it approaches nearest to Petrogale lateralis of GOULD, from which, however, it essentially differs Mr Gilbert and all our best shots went to try their luck; they succeeded in killing seven of the the forenoon; in the afternoon rain commenced with a perfect calm; for the last three days easterly winds have prevailed, often blowing very strong at night

In the rocky gullies, we found the following plants: a new species of Grevillea, having pinnatifid leaves with very long divisions, the blosso two flat seeds, surrounded by a narrow transparent on juniperinu linear leaves and D triquetra, were frequent

Dec 4--I ith my whole party to Zarees 5 minutes 4 seconds, and which is about sixteen miles west by north from our last camp